Karl Adam (theologian)

For other people named Karl Adam, see Karl Adam (disambiguation).

Karl Borromäus Adam (October 22, 1876, Freudenberg, Bavaria - April 1, 1966, Tübingen) was a German Catholic theologian of the early 20th century.

Adam was born in Bavaria in 1876. He attended the Philosophical and Theological Seminary at Regensburg and was ordained in 1900. Adam spent the next two years doing parish work. Adam received his doctorate at the University of Munich in 1904.

In 1915, he became a professor of theology in Munich. Two years later, he accepted a chair in moral theology at Strasbourg and in 1919 he went to teach dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen. He retired from that post in 1949.

Adam wrote extensively on theology. His books include: Tertullian's Concept of the Church, Eucharistic Teaching of St. Augustine, Christ Our Brother, The Son of God, The Spirit of Catholicism, Roots of the Reformation and One And Holy.

Adam is best known for his 1924 work, The Spirit of Catholicism. It has been widely translated, and is still in print today. In The Spirit Of Catholicism, Adam communicates with the laity about the Catholic faith and the Church's role as the keeper of the faith.

In 1934 he delivered a denunciation of the so-called German religion in an address on "The Eternal Christ".Foreword to Spirit of Catholicism, 1954 Doubleday

Further reading

• Mit brennender Sorge - Vatican encyclical published 1937 on the fifth Sunday of Lent, by Pope Pius XII
• namesake St. Charles Borromeo

External links

• Karl Adam profile and books on Goodreads
• Spirit of Catholicism: Karl Adam
• Photographic likeness at Shoahrose website dedicated to Christian defense of Jewish victims of the Shoah from Google cache dated Dec 24, 2008 00:11:39 GMT
• "Karl Adam, National Socialism and Christian Tradition" Robert A. Krieg, Theological Studies, Vol. 60, 1999
• Relevance in the papacy of Benedict XVI; contemporary dogma seen in a hermeneutic of continuity from a pre-Vatican II perspective
• Works by or about Karl Adam in libraries (WorldCat catalog)